


one, two, three in the morning

by grammarkid



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, but it has nothing to do with valentine's day whatsoever, it's p much a slowburn oneshot that never reaches it's resolution lmao, it's really just an excuse for me to make kara sing country music, or as I like to call it, soooo this was supposed to be for valentine's day, the 'midvale is in kansas' au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-17 21:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13667733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grammarkid/pseuds/grammarkid
Summary: While Lena's away on business, Kara is miserable. She's hardly slept for days. Alex is so tired of watching her mope around that she drags her out to karaoke in an attempt to cheer her up. After a few drinks, Kara ends up on stage, and Alex sends Lena a video that makes her think the Girl of Steel might just have feelings for her after all.(Seems like they're the only two idiots who still haven't caught on to each other yet.)





	one, two, three in the morning

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I don't like country music, but I heard this song, didn't outright loathe it, and decided I wanted to make Kara sing it. So I did, and this is the result of that. It's also maybe the beginning of a, um, Kansas AU that... I may visit someday in the future?

The city is dark and quiet. There’s a slumberous hush beneath the stars, and Kara can’t sleep.

It’s the silence that keeps her awake, has kept her awake for four nights in a row. The soothing thrum of the sleeping city is usually enough to lull her into her dreams, but there is a distinct emptiness beneath it now, a void that possesses the hollow ache of vacancy. Though the city murmurs to her its tranquil lullaby, all seems quiet with the absence of Lena’s heartbeat.

She’s been away on business for nearly a week now – in Perth.

Perth, as in Australia. Perth, as in _the other side of the world._

Kara’s hardly slept since she left. (Hasn’t slept at all, really.)

To be honest, Kara hadn’t even known that L-Corp had business in Australia. She shouldn’t have been surprised; Lena runs one of the most successful companies on the globe, after all, and it’s logical that she would have connections on every major continent. The only problem is that Australia’s almost ridiculously far away. Distance is a relatively new issue for Kara, and she’s beginning to realize that it really sucks. 10,853 miles is hardly a marathon for her, more like a sprint at Mach 3, but it’s not like she can just show up in Australia overnight and sweep Lena off her feet, no matter how much she wants to.

‘Friends’ don’t do that, and it’s not exactly conducive to securing one’s secret superhero identity, is it? Alex would kill her.

Since they met, Kara’s done her best not to come between Lena and her work, but this past week has been the harshest test. It should go without saying that she misses Lena terribly, longs for the sweetness of her voice in her ear, can’t go more than a moment without aching for the green of her eyes, and spends most of her day cursing at the snide impassivity of time.

The insomnia, on the other hand, took her by surprise.

She glances at the clock on her bedside table for the tenth time in the past minute alone. It’s 2:32 AM, which means it’s 6:32 PM tomorrow in Perth, so Lena’s probably just finishing up with her work, and Kara’s… hoping desperately that she’ll call.

It’s unrealistic, of course, because Lena travels so often that she’s got all the time zones memorized, but Kara clings to hope. Two days ago, when they’d finally gotten a chance to talk between all of Lena’s innumerous meetings, she casually admitted that the time difference had nearly slipped her mind, and she’d almost called when she got back to her hotel room the night before. She’d gone quiet for a moment, then shyly confessed that she missed her so much that she’d gotten halfway through dialing Kara’s number before she had remembered it would be incredibly late, much too late to call for no reason.

Kara had assured her that it would have been fine, ‘better than fine, actually,’ and she should have called anyway, but Lena’s steadfast sensibilities had remained regretfully unswayed, and she simply promised to be more careful about it in the future.

Kara’s been wallowing about it in tortured silence ever since.

She’s so weakened with desperation that she’s considered calling Lena herself, but that would just raise all sorts of questions about why she’s still awake at various hours of the morning – and how is she supposed to explain that she can’t relax herself enough to sleep unless Lena’s close enough that she can hear her heartbeat in the distance? (By the way, she’s Supergirl!)

2:33 AM. Kara sighs. She seeks out Alex’s heartbeat over the gentle lull of the city. It’s thick and steady, but it’s not quite the dulcet melody she’s looking for, the one that calls to her like the warmth of distant stars. She closes her eyes, listens harder.

Lena’s only going to be gone for a week, and it’s already halfway over. She can go a week without sleep. No big deal.

2:34 AM. Her phone remains still and indifferent on her nightstand.

Time drifts on, and on, and on…

//

Alex isn’t really _looking_ for Kara, but when she happens to pass the rec room on her routine sweep of the premises, she isn’t particularly surprised to find her there. She’s slumped rather dejectedly over a table in the corner, practically thrown over it in her despair, face-down against the textured formica tabletop with both arms sprawled out limply in front of her.

Ever since Lena left town, Kara’s been pouting up a storm, and it’s only gotten worse each day. The city has ben eerily quiet all week on top of that. It seems as though everyone is on their best behavior, which means that Kara doesn’t even have any stray bullets to catch or bad guys to punch, and nothing else seems substantial enough to distract her for long. Today marks her first day off work since Lena has been gone, so Alex isn’t shocked to find her laid out on the table like someone just told her that potstickers have been outlawed. That incredibly advanced alien brain of hers could be focusing on twenty different topics at once – and yet all she can think about is how much she misses Lena Luthor. As pitiful as it is, it’s kind of adorable.

Alex takes a breath and enters the rec room. The files she’s supposed to deliver to Vasquez can wait a few more minutes.

“That bad, huh?” she hums lightly as she begins to pour herself a cup of coffee.

In response, Kara groans plaintively. She lets her arms fall from the table, until only her face is pressed against it. “Stop.”

Alex is careful as she approaches the table Kara’s claimed, wary of a surprise super-speed attack. No matter how many years have passed, she still remembers what it feels like to make a snide remark and then find herself sprawled on the floor with a broken nose before she can even blink. (It was an accident, Kara had only tried to trip her, and it was only once, but _still_.)

“Stop what?” Alex asks, gingerly taking a seat next to her.

“Making fun of me,” Kara mumbles directly into the table.

“I’m not,” Alex protests. “I know better than that.”

Kara allows a quiet noncommittal sound, lifting her head only to let it fall back down with a thump.

“Hey, I know things suck right now, but it’s not all bad,” Alex offers gently. “Guess what tonight is?”

When she nudges Kara’s shoulder with her own, Kara sighs and tilts her head in question, laying it flat against the tabletop, which only serves to further exaggerate her woeful pout and slant her glasses aside, but at least Alex has her attention now.

“Come on, you have to guess at least once,” she presses on.

“It’s… the fifth day of national Business Trips Suck week?”

Wow, she’s really laying it on thick today.

“Close, but no.” Alex leans down to Kara’s level, resting her chin on her crossed arms. “It’s karaoke night,” she sings lightly.

At last, Kara surrenders the faintest hint of a smile, but she shakes her head. “I don’t really feel like going out tonight, Alex.”

“Come on!” Alex protests, because she’s _got_ to get this kid out of the house; and, as strange as it sounds, nothing cheers Kara up quite like the combination of greasy fried food and terrible singing. “You love karaoke, and – _and_ it’s country night!”

Kara makes a face at that, and Alex laughs.

“Even aliens who didn’t grow up in Kansas can like country music, and who are you to judge?”

Kara huffs a small laugh against the tabletop, watches as her warm breath condenses against the false woodgrain.

“It’ll be fun,” Alex continues. “It’ll feel just like home. Cowboy boots and cool hats, and that twang you were fascinated with when you first came to Earth.” Though Kara grimaces, Alex just smiles. “It’ll be like we’re back on the ranch again, McFly.”

Groaning at the nickname, Kara presses her face back into the tabletop. “Please, do not start calling me that again.”

(Although Kara’s youthful obsession with _Back To the Future III_ has faded with time, Alex still thinks it’s hilarious.)

Despite Alex’s efforts, Kara doesn’t make any attempt to acknowledge her proposition further. She closes her eyes, rubs her forehead against the table with a frown. There’s a brief flicker of movement then, the faintest shudder of her silhouette. It’s hardly visible, in reality, so Alex barely catches it, but Kara’s phone is now tilted another twenty degrees to the right, which means that she’s probably just discreetly checked the time and returned to her original position faster than Alex could see.

That just won’t do. Time to break out the big guns, Alex decides.

She drops down to Kara’s level once more to pout. “Come with me?”

Kara’s tired eyes find hers again, this time narrowed with suspicion.

“I want to go,” Alex presses, even though Kara sees right through her. “What? I do. I’m – I’m in the mood to sing! Sue me.”

Kara snorts at that, rolling her eyes and closing them again. “Sure.”

Alex carefully nudges Kara’s glasses back into place with her pinky finger. “Please?”

This, of course, necessitates a silent sibling staring contest of no less than ten seconds – but Alex always wins.

“Fine, I’ll go,” Kara sighs at last. Before Alex can even begin to celebrate, she hastens on. “But I’m not singing.”

Alex pushes closer, forcing an exaggerated pout. “But, Kara, if you don’t sing, it’s just gonna be an ‘-oke’ night.”

Kara groans at the pun and bangs her forehead against the table, but she only manages to hold out for a moment before she snorts, her shoulders shaking with poorly stifled laughter, and Alex considers that success of its own kind.

//

The sixteen hours of difference between National City and Perth are unforgiving. By the time Lena wakes with tomorrow’s sunrise, it’s already three o’clock in the afternoon, and Kara’s all but gasping on her own anticipation. She nibbles anxiously on her thumbnail as the final minutes tick by. It’s become somewhat routine for Lena to text her soon after she wakes up in the morning, even when she’s in town; while she’s been away, that has since progressed into texting Kara the moment she’s woken up, and Kara’s extremely happy about that, of course, but those last few seconds of waiting are always the cruelest.

Finally, her phone buzzes, and Lena’s name illuminates the screen – whilst Kara’s in the middle of stress-eating her seventh slice of second-lunch pizza. She finishes it in record time, clumsily brushing cornmeal off her fingertips to grasp her phone.

**Lena (3:02 PM):** Hello over there  <3

Kara’s mood improves almost instantly.

**Kara (3:02 PM):** Good morning!!  <3

**Kara (3:02 PM):** Did you sleep well?

**Lena (3:03 PM):** Yes, better than I have been. I think my body has finally realized that I’m in Australia.

**Kara (3:03 PM):** Golly, it took long enough. I’ve been worried about you not getting enough sleep. :/

**Lena (3:03 PM):** Kara, don’t worry about me, please. I’m fine, I promise.

**Kara (3:04 PM):** Our definitions of ‘fine’ are vastly different, you know.

**Lena (3:04 PM):** Yes, I do, because you’re much too good for me, Kara Danvers.

(She doesn’t quite know why, but it really makes her heart race when Lena uses her whole name, gosh.)

**Lena (3:04 PM):** Now, please, forget about how much I did or didn’t sleep, okay?

**Lena (3:04 PM):** What about you? Do you have any plans for tonight?

**Kara (3:05 PM):** Well, I didn’t, but then Alex pouted at me until I agreed to go out to karaoke with her.

**Lena (3:05 PM):** That sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Are you excited?

**Kara (3:05 PM):** Yeah! It’s country night, which is really cool!

Honestly, that’s a bit of a stretch, because she’s not exactly looking forward to going out, but… a little hyperbole never hurt.

**Lena (3:05 PM):** I didn’t know you liked country music.

**Kara (3:05 PM):** Oh, I do! Mostly. Um, kind of. Like, it’s not my favorite, but… I mean, I grew up in Kansas, haha.

**Lena (3:06 PM):** Mm, that’s right. I sometimes forget that you’re a sweet, mild-mannered midwestern girl at heart.

Wow. Kara’s not blushing. She’s not – she’s – she’s _totally_ blushing.

**Lena (3:06 PM):** Do you think you’ll sing anything tonight?

**Kara (3:06 PM):** No nonono noooooo. No, ma’am. Not me.

**Lena (3:06 PM):** But didn’t Alex say you were a really good singer?

**Kara (3:07 PM):** She did, and she’s probably going to spend the whole night trying to convince me to sing, but no.

**Kara (3:07 PM):** There’s absolutely no way she’s going to get me up on that stage, nope, not uh.

**Lena (3:07 PM):** Hm. Well, I’m actually kind of glad you won’t be singing.

**Kara (3:08 PM):** Really? Why?

**Lena (3:08 PM):** Because that is something I’d definitely hate to miss. ;)

Yep, Kara’s really blushing now. She crosses her arms over the table and buries her face in them. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she hears a sing-song echo of Alex’s voice that sounds a lot like ‘ _gaaaay_ ,’ but she ignores it. She’s used to the flirty things Lena sometimes says. That’s not to say that they don’t affect her, because they do, often leaving her out of breath and dizzy, sometimes overwhelming her to the point of lightheadedness. She’s just taught herself not to read too far into them.

It’s easier to simply enjoy Lena’s playfulness than it is to languish over the possibility that it might not mean anything – and their time is limited as it is. Within minutes, she will have to bid Kara farewell to ready herself for work, and then it will be another interminable stretch of agonizing silence until they speak again, so Kara’s learned to appreciate the time she has.

**Kara (3:09 PM):** Haha, don’t worry, you won’t be missing out on anything.

**Kara (3:09 PM):** Except maybe Alex crying during a drunken rendition of Holes In the Floor of Heaven.

**Kara (3:09 PM):** Have you decided what you’re having for breakfast yet??

(Food always seems like the safest way to deflect, in Kara’s opinion.)

//

Alex pounds on Kara’s door, two solid thumps below the tarnished gold numbers.

She leans in to brace her arm on the doorframe with a grin. “Ready to go, McFly?”

There is silence for a moment, in which Kara presumably rolls her eyes, before – _“No.”_

“What do you mean, no? It takes you, like, two seconds to get dressed. Get out here.”

_“I don’t want to go.”_

“Kara, come on.”

_“I look dumb, Alex.”_

“Open the door.”

Silence.

“Open the door or I’ll blast it open, and you can explain to your landlord how –”

Before she can finish, the door jerks open.

Alex snorts when she finally sees her, but she doesn’t look _bad_. The two of them almost look like twins, actually, in checked shirts with bandanas tied loosely around their necks, jeans that have seen better days, and boots that aren’t quite sufficiently ‘country,’ but they’ll do. The only thing Kara’s missing is the ridiculously large belt buckle Alex had to dig out of her closet.

Kara huffs that she has nothing better to wear and that she feels stupid.

Alex just rolls her eyes. “You look like me. Are you saying I look stupid?”

“No,” Kara mumbles petulantly, crossing her arms over her stomach.

Though it’s somewhat childish, it’s also ridiculously endearing, and Alex feels a pang of sympathy. She knows her sister and she knows that she’s pining for Lena, _badly_ – but, sometimes, a little tough love is the only way to get Kara moving again.

“That’s what I thought,” she quips. “Now come on. We’re already late.”

She tugs impatiently on Kara’s elbow, but Kara doesn’t budge. She doesn’t sway, shift, pull back, or otherwise acknowledge that Alex is touching her; she just stands there like some cosmic deity cast in stardust and stone. It’s moments like these that remind Alex, like a slap to the face, exactly how extraordinary her little sister really is. Extraordinarily _stubborn_ , that is.

“Winn’s going to eat all your potstickers,” she warns. “The potstickers that are being delivered to the bar _just for you_.”

Finally, Kara relents with a sigh, allowing Alex to pull her through the door, but she makes it no secret that she’s not happy about it. She jams her key in the lock, turns it with big, doleful blue eyes, and then shuffles off down the hall like she’s being led to the gallows. Alex throws an arm around her shoulders, and she is halfway through a dramatic retelling of how long it took her to find this damn bandana in the depths of her closet when, suddenly, Kara smiles. No, _beams_.

Alex abandons her story mid-sentence in favor of a knowing smirk. “She just texted you, didn’t she?”

Kara nods, bouncing like a bobblehead and a puppy all at once, a silent loop of ‘please, please, please’ glistening in her eyes.

But Alex can’t give in that easily; that’s just not how she operates. “How do you even know it’s her?”

“She has a special – it’s – the notification, the pattern of the vibration – hers is different! It was her!”

“Oh, I see. _She_ gets the special text message notification. Not your big sister, of course not.”

Kara whines pitifully, wringing her hands together. “ _Alex_.”

Alex chuckles and waves her hand toward Kara’s pocket lazily. “Are you gonna answer it or what?”

Kara whips out her phone so quickly that Alex doesn’t even see her do it, and she’s already tapping away rapidly by the time Alex realizes her phone is in her hands. Alex shakes her head with a grin. Even though she had her reservations about Lena in the beginning, no one makes Kara smile quite like she does, and after being paired with her in Scrabble during their very first game night, she was as surprised as anyone to find that she actually liked the Luthor who’d stolen her sister’s heart.  

Besides, seeing National City’s hero walk into a trashcan – without even noticing it – simply because the girl she likes _texted_ _her_ is beyond satisfying. Alex glances at the crumpled steel and adds it to her mental list of the DEO’s collateral damage tab.

//

Kara texts Lena the entire way across town to the bar, but she does her best to make conversation with Alex along the way. Her speed is really handy for that. She can usually text Lena and have her phone back in her pocket before Alex even blinks.

Alex teases her, says it’s ‘disconcerting’ because she’s moving so fast that it looks she’s got that huge, dopey smile on her face for no reason. She also gives Kara a hard time about being distracted while they’re spending time together, out of propriety if nothing else – but Kara explains that Lena’s finally on lunch amidst an endless string of meetings, and she probably won’t be available for the rest of the night, and this is the only time they can talk, and, and, and… and Alex graciously relents.

Which is probably the only reason Alex doesn’t reprimand her for continually pulling out her phone while they’re out with their friends. She even kicks Winn under the table when he attempts to make a comment about it, and Kara is actually kind of grateful. She’s a little embarrassed about how desperate she is when it comes to Lena, but it’s still nice to know that, even though Alex seems dead set on giving her the absolute hardest time about, it as often as she possibly can, she _understands_.  

Although Lena’s last text came in just over twenty minutes ago, Kara’s still having a good time. Winn’s wearing chaps and a cowboy hat, and Lucy’s got on a short denim skirt and a sleeveless plaid shirt tied up into a knot above her belly button that makes Alex blush and avert her eyes every time she moves, which makes Kara smile, because they’d be pretty cute together. James is dressed casually, as is J’onn, but he’s at least got his own cowboy hat, and Alex has been not-so-subtly plotting how to get him up on the stage all night, because she swears on her life that she’s caught him listening to country music before.

Oh, and the potstickers that Alex promised her finally arrive. Even though they only last a few seconds, they’re pretty good.

Kara’s still sad, truly can’t help it, but the exotic alcohol Alex has been plying her with since they arrived is hitting her hard. It’s thick and harsh, burns like whiskey but it’s sweet, and it makes everything feel fuzzy, even sharp things like sadness and longing and loneliness. She lays her head on Alex’s shoulder as they listen to an elderly Turian sing ‘Black Velvet’ extremely off-key. As long as that sticky stuff that tastes like cherries and bitter peaches keeps coming, she thinks she’ll be okay.

It’s after Lucy catches her singing along to a decent rendition of ‘The Keeper of the Stars’ that all of them start insisting that it’s _her_ turn to get up on stage. ‘Alex was singing too!’ she protests, because that was one of Eliza’s favorite songs when Kara first came to Earth and it still means a lot to both of them, but her words have no effect. Lucy swears to her that she’ll make Alex go next, so Kara lets her tug her off of her barstool and to her feet, even though she doesn’t really want to. She kind of feels like singing, doesn’t really feel like performing – just gives in anyway. Alcohol does that to her, for some reason.

She stumbles faintly when the whole collective group of them pushes her toward the stage, and she laughs, because it’s kind of nice to be pushed around sometimes, she thinks. To be able to be pushed around, maybe. To not be so hard all the time?

The sticky stuff made her squishy, she thinks, and giggles to herself.

When she makes it to the stage, Alex starts up a rowdy chorus of her name, and Winn does some fancy kind of whistle that Kara has to remember to remind herself to learn how to do someday, but she just squints against the stage lights and waves them off with a bashful grin. The microphone is too light in her hand, like a feather, and she doesn’t know what song she is supposed to sing, because she doesn’t really listen to country music often despite her upbringing. She flips through the little booklet of the available songs, laughs faintly to herself when the words start to bleed together and swim across the pages.

She lifts the microphone to her lips. “Hey, Alex, what’s that – uh, that song – who’s… that guy?”

There’s a round of laughter, which is a little weird, because she doesn’t remember telling a joke.

_“What guy?”_ Alex calls back from their table.

Kara scratches the back of her neck. It’s hard to remember names when there’s only one person on her mind. “The, um, the one who sings, um… jeez, I can’t remember.” She giggles, shrugs. “I can’t ‘member so I’m jus’ gonna start singin’ now, kay?”

She takes a breath. The words come to her on their own, and they feel right.

//

Alex scrambles to pick up her phone the moment Kara starts singing.

She misses the first second or two while she navigates the camera, but that’s alright. She’s planning on using it as blackmail, someday in the future when Kara decides she wants to be difficult about something, so it doesn’t really have to be perfect.

Unfortunately, it’s not as embarrassing as she’d hoped. Kara keeps her eyes closed against the lights, sways a little unsteadily on her feet, but her voice is eerily smooth, passionate, and on-key – and she sings the whole song _acapella_ , because she’s just talented like that. (Alex can’t complain; Kara’s capacity for vocal mimicry has saved her ass several times.) So it isn’t the best blackmail material, but once the words start to sink in, Alex is glad she’s been recording for an entirely different reason.

It’s a love song dedicated to a girl who’s halfway around the world, and wouldn’t it be a pity if she missed the performance?

J’onn glances her way like he’s caught on to her plan, but she just smiles innocently.

Once Kara’s final note quiets to a hush, she begins humming faintly to herself under her breath, much to the amusement of the bar’s other patrons. Alex uses the opportunity to save the video, and then attaches it to a new text message addressed to Lena. She laughs to herself as she sends it off. Kara will probably be furious in the morning, but she’ll deal with that later.

Her laughter dies abruptly when she hears her own name over the mic.

Instead of returning to their table, Kara’s clamoring exuberantly for her to come up to the stage. Alex goes pale when James and Winn and J’onn join in, and then everyone in the bar is chanting ‘Alex, Alex, Alex!’ along with them. Lucy’s fingers are circling her wrist in a way that makes her stomach twist, and she’s begging ‘ _please_ , Alex’ – and then she really has no choice.

She grumbles uncomfortably at the rumble of applause that erupts around her as she approaches the stage.

“Ooh, ooh, this one’s perfect!” Kara gasps, selecting a new song without waiting for her input or approval.  

The notes begin just as Alex steps onto the stage and begrudgingly accepts the second microphone Kara hands her, and she immediately wants to die. The lyrics appear on the television they’ve carted up next to the stage, not that she needs them.

“I’m going to kill you,” she hisses at a volume only Kara will hear, because she must have picked this song to embarrass her.

Kara just smiles back, swaying happily to the tune of the song, and she throws her arm around Alex’s shoulders as she starts crooning the words that so perfectly describe a certain brunette watching from the crowd. _“I like blue eyes, hers are green. Not like the woman of my dreams_ . _And her hair’s not quite as long as I had planned…”_ Kara jostles Alex against her a bit more roughly than she’d allow herself to if she were completely sober, pouting. “Alex, come on, sing with me!”

Reluctantly, Alex sings along, her eyes pinched shut tightly, so she doesn’t have to see Lucy’s face.

_“Five foot three, isn’t tall, she’s not the girl I’d pictured at all, in those paint-by-number fantasies I’ve had…”_

Kara squeezes her happily, and they sing the next few bars together.

_“So it took me by complete surprise when my heart got lost in those deep green eyes. She’s not at all what I was looking for. She’s more.”_

At first, Alex had felt guilty about sending Lena that video, but now she’s glad she did.

Now, Kara _deserves_ it.

//

As soon as the Marketing exec’s presentation on the Fiscal Forecast for 2018 is finished, Lena downs two aspirin and nearly an entire glass of water. She’s grown accustomed to long flights and even longer meetings, but this trip is starting to take its toll on her, weighing on her more heavily than any of her international obligations as L-Corp’s CEO ever have in the past.

But that’s to be expected, isn’t it? It’s nearly impossible to concentrate on work while her heart is halfway around the world, willingly held hostage back in National City, cradled within the warm embrace of Kara Danvers’ impossibly gentle hands.

Lena pinches the bridge of her nose, sighing. She misses Kara fiercely. Even though they text at every possible opportunity, there’s little time to talk between all the meetings and the drama of time zones. She feels like she’s hardly spoken to Kara all week, and it makes her needy, impulsive – it makes her abandon her pride and sneak a glance at her phone while the leader of some R&D subdivision or other readies his presentation at the head of the table. It’s ridiculous, of course, because Kara is steadfastly insistent against texting her while she’s in a meeting, but Lena always clings to the tiniest sliver of hope anyway.

Much to her dismay, Kara hasn’t texted since they’d said goodbye, but she does have a new message. From… Alex?

Lena frowns and lifts her phone from the table for a closer look. From the message preview, it looks like she’s sent a photo.

R&D is still fiddling with some cable or another, sweating and babbling helplessly to his partner, so Lena doesn’t hesitate to open the message. She’s further surprised to find that it’s _not_ a picture. It’s a video, and there’s a message attached below it.

**Alex (1:02 pm):** Kara’s been whining for days about how you two can’t talk as often because of the time difference. Figured this was meant for you, didn’t want you to miss out.

Lena’s smiling before she can think to stop herself.

Was Kara really _whining_ because they couldn’t talk?

“Miss Luthor, are you ready to begin?”

Lena looks up sharply, embarrassed that she’d been caught off guard. Pressed suits and jittery interns regard her expectantly from the other side of the table – but she absolutely cannot bear to resume her meetings without seeing this video. She’s far too intrigued by that blurry preview photo, the one that looked a lot like Kara standing on stage, even though she’d insisted several times that she wasn’t going to be singing at all. Coupled with Alex’s cryptic words, it’s too much for her to resist.

“Actually, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to make a call,” she says at last. “I’ll just be a moment.”

A round of nods circles the table. They have no choice but to agree; she’s the boss, after all.

She quickly excuses herself from the boardroom, clutching her phone in her hand, and slips into the bathroom at the end of the hall. As she locks the door behind her, she realizes that her heart is beating like a tiny, wild thing in her chest. It can’t be helped. Alex had mentioned during their last game night that Kara was a good singer and Lena’s wanted desperately to hear even a second of it ever since. But this… _this_ feels momentous and fragile. It feels like gravity: the birth of something new.

Even though her hands are trembling faintly, Lena takes a breath and presses play.

It cuts in, abruptly, like Alex accidentally missed the first few seconds – and Lena immediately notices that there’s no music. There’s just Kara, standing beneath the faint pinkish glow of the stage lights, holding the microphone with her eyes closed.

_“– if it’s a highway or a long red light, and that dashboard clock just crossed midnight and I just crossed your mind…”_

The noise of the crowd is a low, fuzzy rumble in the background, but Kara’s voice is the only thing Lena truly _hears_. There’s the softest, most endearing twang in it, and that’s really the only indication, other than her attire, that it’s a country song.

_“If you get to wondering if I’m all alone, if I’m ‘bout to go out, if I’m staying home. Baby, don’t hesitate, go on and pick up that phone, no matter what time it is. You ain’t gonna wake me up. Call me up when you’re lonely. You ain’t gonna wake me up, ‘cause I’m up and I’m only thinking ‘bout waking up with you. I miss you, I wish you’d come on and drive me crazy. It ain’t ever too late, baby.”_

By the end of the chorus, Lena’s biting her lip so fiercely that it hurts, but she can’t stop. She thinks back to the last time she and Kara had spoken on the phone, how sad Kara had sounded when she had admitted that she’d thought about calling, but then changed her mind once she realized how late it was in National City – and it almost seems too good to be true, but she _wants_ to believe it so badly. Her palms are sweating and there are a thousand merciless butterflies battering against her ribs, because for one sweet, glorious, dizzying moment, she thinks that fate _isn’t_ playing some cruel sort of trick on her.

She thinks that Alex may be right, and that Kara’s actually singing… about _her_.

_“I might be drinking at a bar down the street,”_ Kara goes on with a wry, languid smile, which earns her a lazy round of laughter from the crowd. Lena giggles right along with them until Kara’s voice drops back into a woeful croon. _“I might be listening to some song on repeat. I might be in my bed, but I won’t be asleep. Don’t you worry ‘bout me._ ”

She drifts easily back into the bridge and chorus, growing more impassioned all the while, and she lingers on the final note, carrying it into a smooth, dulcet crescendo so breathtaking that it careens through the barriers of sound and space to pierce Lena’s chest and land, keen and swift, like an arrow in her heart. It’s worth the strain within her lungs, and she thinks she’d like to keep it there, forever, right below the delicate place that’s already been scored with a tender imprint of Kara’s name.

_“One, two, three in the morning… No, I don’t need any warning. Just show up, just blow up my phone. Don’t worry bout me ‘cause you know…”_ There is a hush in her voice as she sings the final chorus. _“You ain’t gonna wake me up. Call me up when you’re lonely…”_

By the time Kara’s voice rises again for one final surge of emotion, Lena’s traded chewing on her lip for biting the corner of her thumb. She hardly recognizes the acrid bitterness of the clear polish on her tongue or the sting of her lower incisiforms pressing into the tender flesh with every intent to puncture; she would probably bite right through just to taste the rushing blood underneath if she weren’t beaming at her phone so hard as to make her cheeks sore and hot.

Kara smiles as her voice drops into a soft hush. _“One, two, three in the morning…”_

She hums to herself for a moment, swaying there, and then the video goes still.

Lena closes her eyes, desperately fighting down the girlish squeal growing in the back of her throat. She’s been in love with Kara Danvers for months, but, oh, there’s really no stopping it now. She’s so _much_ – so gorgeous and sweet and perfect, and she has the most incredible voice, and she can somehow manage to sing perfectly on-key even when she’s obviously drunk, and Lena doesn’t even like country music, but she thinks she could, maybe, if Kara kept singing it to her, and – _about_ her?

And all, all, _all_ she wants to do is jump on the very first plane that will take her back to that single solitary empyrean iota of space where Kara Danvers bleeds blinding color into an otherwise monochrome universe, and run straight into her arms.

But she _can’t_ – and her fingers tremble as she finally taps on the little box to send her response.

**Lena (1:36 pm):** Thank you, Alex.

**Lena (1:36 pm):** So, so much.

There is a whole room of people waiting for her to return, but Lena allows herself one moment of weakness as she clutches her phone to her chest, closes her eyes, and smiles without worrying how ridiculous she must look. Kara’s voice lingers like a long-forgotten memory of some celestial symphony in her ears, and she already knows that she’s going to wear her phone to its untimely death playing that video over and over again from the privacy of her hotel room later on tonight.

Honestly, it was hard enough to concentrate on work before, but how is she supposed to get anything done _now_?

//

The faint shuffle of Alex’s feet gradually reels Kara out of the depths of sleep.

She inhales deeply, blinks her eyes open. After all the alcohol she’d consumed last night, she thinks she should feel lethargic and sick, but she’s warm and content as she stretches her arms over her head, bathing in the thick beam of sunlight peeking through the curtains. She sinks back into the cushions with a sigh. She doesn’t particularly remember coming back to Alex’s apartment last night, or falling asleep on her couch – or anything, really, past J’onn getting up on stage to sing ‘My Maria.’

Alex wanders out of the bathroom, kneading her shoulder like she’d slept on it wrong, while Kara’s trying to dig her phone out from between the cushions beneath her. Once it’s within her grasp, she finds that she has several missed texts and other various notifications waiting for her, which doesn’t seem right, because she should have woken up when they’d gone off.

She frowns up at Alex, upside down, as she passes by the couch. “Did you silence my notifications?”

“Yes,” Alex says matter-of-factly. She raps her knuckles against Kara’s forehead. “I wanted to make sure you’d actually _sleep_.”

Kara frowns and swats her hand away, but she forgets her disappointment entirely the moment she opens Lena’s messages.

**Lena (6:42 am):** Today has been so brutal, I can’t even begin to explain it, but I hope that you had a much better night with your sister and all of your friends. Did you enjoy watching everyone get up on stage and sing? Was anyone really good?

**Lena (6:42 am):** I’m off to bed now, because I can hardly keep my eyes open anymore. Missing you. Good morning. <3

Kara’s heart goes freewheeling through the clouds, does somersaults and back handsprings, corkscrews and barrel rolls, and all manner of aerial maneuvers. She scrambles up to prop herself over the back of the couch before Alex can wander off.

“Alex, look,” she whispers, but her voice grows with every word. “She sent me a _heart_. A heart!”

Alex indulgently leans in to peer at Kara’s phone. Humming under her breath, she flicks a finger against the screen, causing it to scroll through their earlier conversations. “Looks to me like she sends you hearts all the time,” she drawls with a smirk.

“No!” Kara scoffs, retracting her phone protectively. “Only when we say goodnight. Or good morning. Or sometimes when I make her laugh. Or when she has to say goodbye unexpectedly.” She sighs wistfully to herself, even as Alex snorts into the back of her hand. “But, no matter how many times she sends them, it’s like – it just – it feels like… It feels like _flying_ , Alex.”

Alex rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling as she whispers conspiratorially, “Don’t look down now, Jumbo Junior. You _are_ flying.”

Oh, golly, she is. Well, as long as she doesn’t put a hole in the ceiling, what’s the harm?

Grasping Kara’s belt, Alex tugs her along as she marches to the kitchen. Kara gradually drifts to a halt near the sink, though she hardly notices, too busy beaming down at her phone and the tiny pixelated facsimile of emotion displayed on it. It’s just now half past seven, which means that it’s eleven in Australia. Kind of late, but there’s a chance Lena may not be asleep yet.

**Kara (7:28 am):** I had a great time!! And there were a few people who were really great! I wish you could’ve been there.

**Kara (7:28 am):** Because I missed you a lot. A lot, a lot. I also drank a lot? Sooooo much. Mostly because I missed you, and I was really sad because you weren’t there. I probably wouldn’t have gotten so drunk if you were! I fell off my chair twice.

**Kara (7:28 am):** I feel okay now, though. Back to missing you, but you come home tomorrow, so I’m happy about that! :)

**Kara (7:28 am):** I’ll let you sleep now. (Hope I didn’t wake you up.) Sweet dreams over there! Goodnight, Lena.  <3

She wonders briefly if it’s too much, as she always does, but she’s said more embarrassing stuff before, so it should be okay.

“If you’re going to stick around for breakfast,” Alex murmurs, half-buried in the depths of the fridge, “I need more eggs.”

Kara has learned a few things from Barry about how to harness her natural speed without anyone catching a glimpse of her in motion, and she’s pretty familiar with the layout of the security cameras in her frequent destinations, so she doesn’t even bother to change out of her clothes from last night before she speeds out the door. She breezes by a couple at the crosswalk, counts the spokes in a bike messenger’s tires, and strolls into a little corner market at the end of Alex’s block; she avoids the security camera’s line of sight, even though she’s moving far too fast for such dated technology to capture her on film, snags a carton of eggs out of the refrigerated section, then waltzes over to the register; she pauses to write ‘ _for the eggs :) -supergirl_ ’ on a slip of receipt paper, places it in the clerk’s hand along with a five dollar bill, and then skips back to Alex’s apartment.

All before the refrigerator door even has a chance to swing shut, Kara notes with a grin.

Alex, for her part, doesn’t look particularly surprised when she turns around to see Kara holding up a new carton of eggs.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she mumbles, extending her hand expectantly.

Kara almost drops the whole carton when she feels the familiar pattern of Lena’s unique notification hum against her thigh – and then she can’t get her phone out fast enough, nearly crushing the eggs in her haste to press them into Alex’s hands.

This time, it’s a picture, and Kara’s heart resumes those frenzied backflips from earlier at the first sight of it, because Lena is clearly in bed, peering out from beneath a downy taupe duvet that perfectly compliments her eyes, sets them aglow, though they’re half-closed with sleep, like emerald quartz held up to the sun, and her raven hair is spilling out across the too white, white pillows like ink on a canvas, and she’s smiling, permitting the faintest glimpse of her pale lipstick-bare lips curling up at the corners – and in her tidy digital handwriting, she’s scrawled ‘one more day <3’ across the bottom of the photo.

Gosh, Kara’s whole body kind of wants to do a backflip now, too.

And she wants to shout for hours about how pretty Lena looks, but she also looks tired, so Kara just quickly types back ‘one more day!’ and sinks back against the counter bonelessly, staring at the photo so intently as if to memorize it pixel by pixel.

“Jeez, what was that about?” Alex grumbles as she pointedly checks the carton for broken eggs.

“One more day, Alex!” Kara exclaims breathlessly. “One more day and then she’s back in National City, and I can look at her and talk to her and see her smile and hear her laugh and – ugh, today’s gonna be the longest day _ever_. Time moves so slow!”

“Welcome to life on Earth,” Alex chuckles, leaning back to survey her. “Seriously, Kara. It’s one day. How bad could it be?”

“Terrible!” Kara laments. She hops up onto the counter with a pout. “It’s just gonna be another boring twenty-four hours of staring at the clock, being mopey and sad and not being able to talk to her and not having anything important to do and –”

Sirens are screeching in the distance – probably about twenty blocks away, by the sounds of them.

Alex crosses her arms, smug. “What were you just saying about having nothing important to do?”

“Finally!” Kara shouts. She jumps up from the counter, shucks her checked shirt and jeans in favor of her super suit in half a second flat. “Some jerk’s trying to rob the First Municipal bank on Aspen Street. Like, why do they even bother anymore?”

“Just to give you something to do, I guess.” Alex shakes her head wryly, turns to begin to searching the high cupboards for a frying pan. “You know, if you actually take your time out there, breakfast might be ready by the time you get back.”

“Okay, mom,” Kara drawls back. “I’ll be _super_ thorough.”

She makes a show of waltzing casually toward the window, in no apparent hurry – but the moment she’s in the air, she’s off and rocketing toward the sirens, almost as though, if she flies fast enough, she can drag the speed of time along with her.

One more day, one more day, one more day…

//

Jess likes to think that she is a good assistant. She’s known and worked with Lena for almost two years now and they’re just about as close as a professional relationship will allow. There’s a certain degree of trust between them, trust that Jess knows doesn’t necessarily come easily or freely for Lena, and she values that trust greatly. For that reason, she has always done her best not to interfere when it comes to Lena’s personal life, but that has become increasingly difficult as of late, because…

To put it bluntly, sometimes her genius billionaire philanthropist boss is really just a helpless gay mess in designer clothes.

No one lights her up the way Kara Danvers does. Anyone who’s seen them together can tell that Lena is head over heels for her. (Except for maybe Kara herself, because she is just as helpless as Lena is, honestly.) Which means that it didn’t take any particular convincing on Kara’s part when she’d showed up in front of Jess’s desk yesterday, with a pastry box and a hot cup of coffee, and asked – no, _begged_ – Jess to let her come to the airport with her, all just to surprise Lena when she landed. She couldn’t resist, because there’s something inexplicably charming about Kara Danvers’ nervous rambling, to be quite honest,  but also because she’s pretty sure that they’ll need all the help they can get if they’re ever actually going to end up together.

She doesn’t know much about Kara other than the fact that she has dimples hidden in her dazzling smile, because she greets her with the same one every time she waltzes in and out of Lena’s office, but she can tell that this girl likes Lena very much. While they wait next to each other on the tarmac of Lena’s private landing strip, she’s practically vibrating with excitement and impatience, her blue eyes cast up to the sky like she’s waiting for a goddess to part the clouds and bring her the sun.

Though Jess fights valiantly to contain her her amusement, biting back a smile, Kara notices it eventually.

“Sorry,” she mumbles, a bit pink in the ears as she visibly forces herself to keep still. “I’m just really excited.”

“I’m sure she will be just as excited to see you, Kara,” Jess assures her.

Although, she wouldn’t be entirely surprised if Lena took one step off the plane and fainted. Despite her icy veneer, she has always been weak in the knees when it comes to romance. The last time Kara sent her flowers, a single bouquet, she cried.

Time seems to slow to a crawl with Kara practically buzzing next to her, cycling through just about every form of fidgeting known to man, almost as though the world can’t quite keep up with her. At last, they catch sight of Lena’s private jet, and it seems to take a great deal of effort for Kara to refrain from jumping in the air, though she does permit a small yelp of joy.

Unfortunately, it takes much longer for planes to land in real life than it does in the movies, even sleek private jets, and Jess can tell that it’s driving Kara crazy to wait even these final few minutes. It’s kind of cute. She wonders if Lena’s caught sight of her through the window – or if she’s too busy desperately checking her phone to see if she happened to message her.

To Kara’s credit, she doesn’t sprint off toward the plane the moment the skycap releases the lock for the clamshell door and extends the airstairs from within the fuselage. When Lena finally appears at the top of them, effortlessly put together as she always is, every bit the accomplished CEO, with a tablet and a laptop tucked in the crook of her elbow and her phone in her other hand, Kara breaks into a smile that could shatter hearts, power a nuclear reactor, illuminate the blackness of space.

Bringing her was the right choice, Jess is sure of it.

Predictably, Lena’s face is buried in her phone as she makes her way down the stairs, a slight pinch in her brow, and Kara is practically writhing with impatience, physically pleading for Lena to just put her phone away, to look up, to notice her, to –

When Lena finally does look up, she stumbles to a halt right there in the middle of the tarmac. She seems almost paralyzed, rooted in place with shock and incredulity. Then Kara lifts her hand to offer a small, goofy wave, and she smiles so brightly that she could give Kara a run for her money. She gives in to a laugh, a bubbly, ungovernable sound that meets the ears not unlike Kara’s name, and in return Kara abandons all attempts to restrain herself. She crosses the last bit of distance between them almost impossibly fast and scoops Lena up into an enormous hug that lifts her right off her shiny black heels.

Jess averts her eyes politely as they cling to one another, giggling their relief into each other’s shoulders.

Even after Kara has released her, Lena’s still beaming. “Kara, how did you –? What are you doing here?”

“I made Jess promise to bring me,” Kara replies sheepishly. “I also, um, made her promise not to tell you.” She rubs the back of her neck, flushing pink under Lena’s gaze. “There may have been donuts involved, and I, well – I bribed her, essentially?”

Lena purses her lips against a smile. “Somehow, I don’t think it took that much effort to convince her,” she says pointedly.

When Lena’s eyes flick to her own, Jess simply tilts her head diplomatically and smiles. “The driver’s ready, Miss Luthor.”

//

Lena can’t bear to return to the office. That had been her plan originally, to waste a few hours reviewing her files at L-Corp until Kara got off work – but that was before she’d known that Kara had taken an entire day off work just to surprise her at the airport. The moment she saw her there, standing next to Jess with those blue eyes lit up like stars and that sweet-bright smile that never fails to make her heart stutter in her chest, Lena knew she wouldn’t be able to let her out of her sight.

She suggests that they catch up instead. Predictably, Kara insists that it’s totally okay if Lena has to get back to work, it’s not a problem, she just wanted to see her, and so on, to which Lena replies, ‘I’ve been working for eleven days straight, I think I deserve an afternoon off to have coffee with my best friend,’ and promptly asks her driver to drop them off at Noonan’s.

Kara’s cheeks go a little bit pink, but she smiles down at her lap, mumbles something about how coffee sounds nice.

Lena ignores the fact that she can see Jess smirking rather apparently behind the tablet she’s been pretending to use.

When they arrive, Kara lingers to thank Jess profusely for allowing her to come with them, then hurries ahead to open the door to Noonan’s before Lena can reach it herself. She forces a wide smile to cover the ungainly giggle that escapes her, and Lena just wants to take her face in her hands, lean up onto her toes, and kiss her right there in the middle of the doorway.

Fortunately – rather, _unfortunately_ – she’s become quite good at resisting that particular temptation.

Despite Kara’s protests, Lena insists on paying. An enormous cinnamon roll flooded with molten icing gets tacked onto the end of their standard coffee order when she catches Kara gazing at it covetously through the glass, and Kara colors just a bit in embarrassment, but she thanks her for it as they claim one of the little tables sequestered off near the windows. She has a dozen questions lined up – asks about the flight and the hotel, and, most importantly, the food – and Lena really isn’t in any position to resist the impromptu interview it becomes. It’s nearly impossible for her to deny Kara anything on her best day, and even more so now that they’re finally face to face again after spending an entire week on opposite sides of the planet.

Once Kara’s questions begin to slow, Lena turns them back on her. “Mm, enough about me. How has your week been?”

“Boring,” Kara mumbles, sinking back into her chair with a pout that is far too adorable. “I mean, aside from talking to you, the only fun I had was when we went to karaoke, and that was only because Alex was tired of watching me mope around.”

Lena attempts to hide her smile behind her coffee, but she’s not entirely sure she manages it. “Was it really that bad?”

Kara rubs the back of her neck with a grimace, glancing out the window. “Um, it was… pretty bad, yeah. But I couldn’t help it! It’s not like I _wanted_ to be miserable the whole time, I just missed you, and not being able to talk to you wasn’t helping.”

Her cheeks are burning pink beneath the frames of her glasses, so Lena lets the confession settle between them lightly, even though the pleasant shudder that dances between the knots of her spine is anything but gentle.

“At least I know I can count on Alex to take care of you whenever I’m out of town,” she laughs.

“Yeah,” Kara admits wryly. “Honestly, I didn’t want to go at first, but I did have a good time. Winn was wearing, like, actual chaps, and Alex was totally checking Lucy out, and I ended up drinking so much that they convinced me to get up on stage, even though I didn’t really want to, but I got Alex back by making her sing this song about Lucy, and – and – what?”

Lena shakes herself out of the memory of Kara lit up beneath the stage lights, silences the echo of that dulcet song. “Hmm?”

“You’re looking at me funny,” Kara says with another pout.

“Am I?” Lena feigns innocence. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to.”

“Do you think it’s weird that I like country music?” Kara asks self-consciously. “Because, I mean, I don’t _like_ -like it, I just –”

“Kara, that’s not it,” Lena soothes. She places her coffee down on the table, biting her lip. She hadn’t necessarily intended to tell Kara about the video, but now it seems that she doesn’t have much of a choice. “I… have a small confession to make.”

Kara cocks her head, looking every bit like a confused golden retriever as her blonde curls bounce behind her. She seems so innocent, waiting for Lena to explain this mystery with just the tiniest furrow above otherwise wide, patient blue eyes, that Lena almost doesn’t have the heart to tell her. Although that video has become one of her most precious possessions, easily, she already knows that Kara will be embarrassed when she finds out, and there doesn’t seem to be any way around that.

Might as well just lay it all out on the table.

“That night at the bar, Alex recorded a video of you singing. She sent it to me.”

Kara’s face goes pale. “So, the… s-song, and the… you saw… you heard what…”

Lena nods gently, and… well, that actually wasn’t as bad as she had anticipated.

Kara is still for another moment, her eyes wandering the surface of the table as she processes the information, and then the reality of it seems to hit her all at once. She screws her eyes shut, whining under her breath and burying her face within her the protective embrace of her hands. She knocks her glasses askew when she scrubs her palms roughly over her cheeks, but she doesn’t seem to notice, just drags her hands down over her mouth in a poor attempt to stifle a low, tortured groan.

Her face is as red now as Lena’s ever seen it, terrified blue eyes peering at her from behind only one lens.

“Oh, my God. I’m so sorry. I – was it bad? It was bad, wasn’t it? I didn’t mean to drink so much! Alex kept shoving bottles in front of me, and I’m realizing now that I basically have no tolerance when it comes to alcohol, so I just – I’m really sorry –”

“Kara, you don’t need to apologize,” Lena insists gently. She captures one of Kara’s flailing hands with her own and keeps it, presses it between her palm and the tabletop until she gradually goes still, solid as celestial stone. “It wasn’t terrible at all.”

“It… wasn’t?” Kara croaks hesitantly.

“No,” Lena sighs. “It was incredible.”

“Incredible?”

She sounds so awed, so shocked, in utter disbelief, with the ghost of a smile and the tiniest shimmer of hope like stardust in her eyes, and it’s just so stupidly cute that Lena has to fight very hard not to leap across this too-small table into her arms.

“Yes. You have a wonderful voice.”

Kara giggles at that, ducking her head, as though a compliment is a concrete thing she can physically avoid if she just makes herself small enough. “It – I’m – it’s _okay_ , I guess? I was in choir for a few years, but –”

“That outfit was pretty cute too,” Lena teases. Now that the worst of Kara’s embarrassment is over and she’s back to normal levels of blushing and fidgeting, nervously adjusting her glasses, Lena simply can’t resist. “The bandana was a nice touch.”

“Oh, my God.”  Kara pinches her eyes shut again, her ears going pink. “I – I’m – I’m going to _fling my sister into the sun_.”

(In her embarrassment, she doesn’t seem to realize how strange that threat that is, but Lena doesn’t hold it against her.)

“Don’t be mad at her,” Lena pleads, half-laughing despite herself. “I’m really glad I got to see it.” Kara looks so unconvinced, so thoroughly skeptical, the blue of her irises flat and melancholy, that Lena has no choice but to muster enough courage to be vulnerable with her for a moment. “It was one of the only reasons I made it through the rest of the trip, believe it or not. By the end of it, I could hardly make it half an hour without a migraine, but when I got stressed, I’d lock myself in an empty office for a few minutes and I’d just listen to you sing until the rest of the world didn’t seem so loud anymore.”

At last, Kara allows the trace of a smile. Those glittering constellations return to illuminate her eyes. “Really?”

Usually, saying such things out loud is like opening a vein for a Luthor, but Kara looks so pleased now, and – oh, why not?

“To tell you the truth,” she sighs, leaning in and propping her chin in her palm, “it made me smile like an idiot every time.”

Kara pushes her glasses up her nose as she drops her eyes down to her lap, trying and failing to hide her own smile – one of those marvels of a thing, so dazzling as to be life-threatening; the kind of smile that gets stuck in Lena’s throat like a gulp of brandy she wasn’t quite ready for, burns all the way down to her stomach, settles there like something liquid and warm.

She’s quiet for another moment, still smiling, until her head jerks up suddenly. “But – I mean, you _deleted_ that video, right?”

“Are you kidding me?” Lena chuckles with a smirk. “That’s your new ringtone.”

Kara goes white once more. “Lena, no – tell me you didn’t – Lena, _please_ – no –”

“It’s not,” Lena relents with a grin, which earns a sigh of relief. “But I’d really like to keep it. Please don’t ask me to delete it.”

“Okay, I won’t,” Kara agrees reluctantly. “But that was seriously, like, top five in the most embarrassing moments of my life, so can we, maybe, just not mention it ever again? Or how about we just pretend that it never even happened at all? Fair?”

Biting her lip, Lena arches a brow at her over the rim of her cup. “Only if you agree to sing for me in person.”

There’s some unintelligible sputtering then, some flushing and panicked head-shaking, and then Kara goes to take a gulp of coffee, only to realize that her cup is empty, which is fortunate, because she squeezes it so hard that it crumples in her fist.

“I-I’m – I gonna – coffee – I need more – you want some? I’ll get – um –”

Kara trips as she lurches away from the table, and Lena smiles after her.

She adores this goofy, fumbling mess of a Kryptonian, she really does.

//

The city is dark, somnolent and hushed, and Kara is wide awake.

She’s too present, too pleasantly restlessness to sleep. Tonight her insomnia is kind, prompted not by the silence, but by the sweetness of her favorite sound. Beneath the hum of the city, beyond the streetlights and apartment complexes and parking lots between them, Lena’s heartbeat is sweet and steady, and Kara can’t help but to submit to its rhythmic, beckoning call.

It takes effort for her to listen that far, keeps her up, but after a week of drowning in the unforgiving silence, it’s worth it.

Despite the even regularity of her vitals, Lena’s awake; Kara can tell by the faint huffs she gives every few minutes, the silky rustle of her blankets as she shifts from one position to another and back again. She had almost fallen asleep, nearly an hour ago now, but a gust of wind had shaken the curtains and disturbed her and she’s been shifting around woefully ever since.

Lena rolls over with a sigh. The springs in her multi-thousand-dollar mattress creak so faintly Kara almost can’t hear them, and then there’s a light scraping sound as she fiddles with something. Maybe her laptop, or her tablet. Kara can’t tell exactly what she’s doing from this distance, but there’s more shuffling, louder now. She must be getting comfortable again. She had better not be trying to _work_ , that’s all Kara has to say, or she’ll give her an earful about it first thing in the morning, and –

Suddenly, Kara hears her own voice. Singing. That song from the bar. Oh, gosh. Lena’s watching the video Alex sent her.

Kara cringes, her face burning hot beneath her fingertips. She doesn’t sound _terrible_ , but – but she can hear Lena’s heartbeat tick up slightly as the video goes on. Gradually, it becomes harder and harder for her to hear her own voice over Lena’s tiny sighs and gentle giggles, until she hardly hears herself at all. She keeps her eyes closed, focuses on the soft, lilting cadence of Lena’s heart, light and swift. Her own heart is racing in her chest, because Lena actually _likes_ the song. She had said as much earlier, but there’s no room for doubt anymore. Kara listens for several moments, biting her lip hard against the magnitude of the smile that threatens to win out, and she doesn’t even notice that the video is over until her phone begins to ring.

Kara’s eyes snap open, and she almost tumbles right off the bed in her haste to grasp her phone off her nightstand.

It’s Lena! She sends a feverish prayer of gratitude to the benevolent stars above before she lifts her phone to her ear.

“Lena?” she murmurs. She doesn’t bother to weaken her voice under the pretense of sleep. “It’s late. Are you okay?”

“Jet lag,” Lena sighs in return. “Can’t sleep, and… if I’m not mistaken, you did tell me to call you up whenever I was lonely.”

In the midst of Lena’s teasing while they were at Noonan’s, they had never actually acknowledged the implication that Kara was singing to _her_ that night, but Lena had obviously figured it out on her own. (Or with a little help from Alex, no doubt.) The truth lingers in the silence between them, a gossamer, delicate thing, both raw and sincere, threatening to expose all of the exceedingly tender feelings Kara so desperately tries to hide – but she can’t bring herself to feel embarrassed about it.

Because Lena called. It’s three in the morning, and _Lena called her_ , and that simple act alone seems almost like reciprocation.

In the hush of the silence, it seems to say, without words, ‘I know what you meant, and it’s okay.’

It doesn’t have to say anything else. It doesn’t have to say, ‘I love you too.’ Kara doesn’t need it to.

For now, this is enough. In fact, it’s so far beyond enough that it makes her giddy, nearly dizzy with happiness. It floods her veins with warmth, fuses hydrogen into helium beneath her heaving ribs until that effervescent elation lifts her entirely off the bed and she tumbles into that backflip she’s been fighting down for the past two days.

“Yeah,” she breathes back, hovering weightlessly in the cool stillness of the night. “I did.”

Thank Rao for karaoke nights and country music.

**Author's Note:**

> The song Kara sings is "Wake Me Up" by Billy Currington, and the song she and Alex sing together is "She's More" by Andy Griggs. I'm so terribly sorry I made you read this. All disgruntled complaints and hate mail should be directed to @grammarkid on Tumblr.


End file.
